Flowers – Shooting the best models ever

Mother Earth is covered by over 400,000 different species of flowers. Did you know that?

I didn’t, I looked it up. But what I do know is, that I love flowers and even more so, I love to capture them with my camera. I do prefer the living kind out in nature, also cultivated in a garden, nursery or even in a greenhouse. As a flower lover of course at times I also like to surprise someone I care for

with freshly cut roses, tulips or such. Sometimes, before I give away these signs of affection, I use them as models. They are great to shoot since they basically do what you want in opposite to the living kind. You can place them wherever you want, turn them until they fit in the frame and play with the background and lighting as long as you need to achieve the best results.

I don't know much about flowers except that they can be the best models ever. They are colorful, come in all shapes, the attract little interesting bugs and most of all, they make great photography. Well, there is stuff I know about flowers, especially about roses and tulips, but this kind of knowledge comes from the romance department. Here it goes: with tulips you declare

your love to someone, with roses you confirm your love! Well, I know, it’s not much

of a knowledge but it's good to know and might serve one well.

Roses, tulips, sunflowers and Co. – great colors, awesome images

Flowers are very cool “models” – for the most part at least. No matter where and how many of them you find – a single one, a bundle or even countless in a field – they always know how to shine. A favorite of mine are flowers in a wedding or any other great event, especially when they come as part of a decoration. In combination with unusual lighting they make endless motives and trigger all your creativity. In my experience when shooting flowers, roses, tulips and sunflowers almost always reward you with the most beautiful results. But of course every flower no matter how big or little can give you the same, it always depends what you do with it.

I like to use my tele lens to shoot flowers in general, because I like to blur out the background to isolate the flower itself. So it becomes clear that the main subject is the flower. Lately I use also a macro lens when shooting flowers, because it gives me even more blur in the background and the photo this great "painted" look. Plus a macro lens also gives you some really awesome possibilities to take a different approach in shooting flowers, especially when you are all about details and patterns. I also prefer when there is some action going on. Like water drops, spider webs or even a fly, a bee or a wasp on it. By the way, that’s mostly the reason why I prefer the living kind of flowers out in nature.

When shooting flowers lighting is always key

Lighting is always important when shooting flowers. For me lighting is key. I always try to avoid flashing when flowers are in the frame as well. Next to many other problems it also makes the flowers look “flat”. While outside I mostly shoot free hand, inside I like to use a tripod and a long time exposure. I feel this makes the colors pop even more. To have sunlight shining through tulip leaves in a vase, it doesn't come much better, this is the stuff you might want to aim for. Speaking of tulips, here is a little idea a fellow photographer once passed on to me: put some ink into the water when having fresh-cut white tulips in a vase. It will turn the leaves of the tulips bluish, a very cool effect when doing some detail shots of the leaves. Just an idea to play with.

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